Raise Some Hell
by EternalMink
Summary: Chell has been freed from the confines of Aperture, only to find that the world outside isn't much better. With the help of some familiar faces, she will join the fight to take back Earth from the Combine.
1. Chapter 1

Alright, this is my first foray into the valve 'verse. I say valve 'verse, because I consider Half life and portal part of the same universe. As this is a fic about Chell's life outside of aperture, there will be combine and zombies appearing, as well as, eventually, the characters from the half life games, because who doesn't want to see Gordon Freeman and Chell meet up and kick ass? However, the story will mostly follow Chell, not to say there won't be some POV from others later.

I am timing this so that Portal 1 takes place a short time after the 7 hours war. So, let's start this adventure!

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><p>A soft breeze blew through a field of golden wheat. The sun shone brightly upon the wild grain, a miracle in and of itself, as no one had tended this land in over 20 years. Yet the plant life, in its unstoppable way, had thrived without human hands to guide it. The only place that was left untouched was a small metal shed in the middle of the grain, and the small human who had just climbed out of it.<p>

The girl, Chell, sat on a large, scorched cube. Her feet, encased in long fall boots were gently swinging back and forth, knocking against the heart decals on the cube's side. She was taking long, deep breaths in and out, concentrating on the wonderful feeling of fresh air passing through her chest.

'Really,' she thought, 'you don't know how wonderful simple things are until you are trapped 3 miles underground in asbestos filled, abandoned laboratories with your worst enemy speared on the end of your gun.'

And after such a long time solving puzzles and wandering through said laboratories, being outside might just have been the most wonderful feeling in the world. Of course, Chell couldn't know for certain just how long it had been since she had seen fresh air.

She didn't know how much time had passed between her first attempted escape and her eventful ride with Wheatley. She didn't even have an estimate as to how long it had been since he had woke her up, as the adrenal vapor pumped into the enrichment center had kept her from getting tired. And, most pathetically, she didn't know what year it had been before she had gone into the enrichment center for the first time. She didn't know how she had gotten to be there, or where she was, or if there were ever actual people in the massive institution.

The only thing Chell could be confidant about in regard to her past life was her name. She knew her name was Chell. For now, with fresh air, a clean sky, and a limitless future ahead of her, that was enough.

She stood up on top of the cube and slowly turned in a circle, looking for any landmarks in the distance that she could use to guide her. But the field extended as far as she could see out into every direction, with nothing to break it up except for the little metal shed. Chell sighed and hopped down. Maybe GLaDOS just wanted her to wander around forever in this field and die of starvation. Maybe this field was the only thing left of the world.

Chell briefly imagined a world that was one giant wheat field before dismissing the notion. After all, there were other plants. Rice and corn would have to fight wheat for territory, and then there would be constant and unending war. It was quite funny to her, the mental picture of all the stalks around her marching off to war against short, chubby corncobs, so she chuckled silently, laughing for the first time she could remember.

Since there were no landmarks and she wasn't just going to wait around in this small clearing until she died, Chell faced straight ahead of the door from which she had emerged and, taking a deep breath, headed off into the wheat. It quickly swallowed her into its depths, blocking her view in every direction but up. Chell just tried to walk as straightly as possible, trudging through and over the plant life. By the time the sun started to set she was slowly fading and getting hungry but was unwilling to stop and rest for fear that she would never get out of this massive field.

It was actually quite a novel experience for her, getting tired. She had never been tired before, at least, not that she could remember, having subsisted on adrenal vapor during the days she had been climbing through Aperture Science. But then she also had psychotic robots attacking her, or possible death by nuclear explosion giving her a reason to keep going. Now Chell only had her own strength of will to keep her moving through this seemingly endless plain that was so full of life, yet still seemed empty.

And though her will was strong, Chell could feel herself fading as the bright colors of the sunset gave way to night, a full moon providing enough light to see, but only barely. Chell looked up at the bright, full, moon, and wondered if Wheatley missed her.

It was a funny thing to wonder about, seeing as how the last time they met he had tried to kill her, but Chell was in a funny situation in general. She certainly missed him, though it was hard for her to admit it. His endless dialogue and good humor would cheer her up right now. She felt more alone right then than she could ever remember. Even in the lowest depths of the Aperture facility, Chell had always known that somewhere in the building there was another person, or at the very least an A.I which was as sentient as a human would be. But now, it seemed, no matter how much she walked there was nobody and nothing.

Chell wondered if there was anybody left in the entire world. All she had seen was wheat. Out of anger, she brought her arm around to hit some of the large plants to her side, but they just snapped back into place, one of them flicking her with a seed. Chell scowled and continued to walk, once again pondering the question of humans. Logic dictated to her that there must be others. Not everyone had worked at Aperture, or at least that's what she thought. But she had been gone so long. . .

And she was so tired. When had she gotten so tired? The moon had only just reached it's zenith when Chell collapsed onto the ground in pure exhaustion. She just couldn't walk anymore. Still, she desperately tried to get up, to pull herself from the ground and keep going, but the ground felt so comfortable and her head felt like it was too heavy for her neck to support.

But she was Chell. She was a dangerous mute lunatic, and if there was one thing that she had going for her in this big bad world, it has her inability to just lay down and die. If she had gotten through the mazes and tests of Aperture Science, she could get through a field. Chell could see GlaDOS just laughing at her from under the ground.

"Oh, my little test subject, I let her go but it didn't matter because she just died anyway. Laid down and died in the middle of a stupid field of stupid wheat, didn't even make it a day"

Resolve hardened, Chell pushed herself up onto her long fall boots. There was no way that she was going to let GLaDOS win at anything, even if it was just an imaginary GLaDOS inside of her head. Chell was stubborn like that, but so far her stubbornness had served her well.

Even more annoying than the ever present exhaustion that she felt as she trudged through the moonlit fields was the thirst. Chell couldn't remember ever drinking something before, but she knew that water was what she needed. But there certainly wasn't any to be found there. Well, there probably was if she went down deep enough, Chell thought, remembering fondly the large pool of water at the bottom of the Aperture facilities. But it was impossible to access it from where she was, and she didn't think it would be safe to drink if she could access it.

Eventually, the sun began to rise. The heat on her tired body was a wonderful feeling, and Chell stopped to savor it for a few moments, not sitting down for fear of never getting back up again. She hadn't noticed this simple joy yesterday, so full of both elation at her escape from aperture science and fear at the unknown. She did, however, notice when she walked straight out of the wheat and into a low grassy field.

It was covered in wild flowers and led down a gentle slope to a small but cheerfully bubbling brook. On the other side of the brook was what looked like a forest which held trees so large that Chell wondered why she hadn't noticed them when she had looked around while standing on top of the companion cube. The only thing that was missing was the sounds of any animals or birds. But not remembering ever being in the forest before, Chell didn't recognize that anything was wrong. After all she had been through, this seemed like paradise.

Chell rushed across the field toward the stream, heart nearly busting with joy at the sight. She dropped to her knees on the banks of the creek and threw her entire head into the cool bliss. It quickly replaced the feeling of the sun as the best thing that she could remember, and if she didn't have to come up for air, Chell thought that she could have stayed under there for hours.

But she did eventually have to breathe, although it was an impressively long time before she had to do so. After one long breath she went back under, this time gulping up as much of the water as she could. She drank for a long time after her thirst was quenched, until it filled her empty stomach and she began to feel a bit sick. So Chell simply collapsed on her back, half inside the river and half out, finally able to truly enjoy the sunlight on her face now that there was no risk of her dying by dehydration.

After a while, the water became more than she could stand. It was colder than even the air three miles under the earth was, and that was saying something. Chell wasn't sure what it was saying, though. Maybe it was just commenting on how absolutely ridiculous her life was that she even knew what air felt like three miles underground.

But it was easy enough to get out of the water, and Chell did so, wriggling until her whole body was on dry land. Soon she was entirely warm. Chell smiled. It was good to be free.

The light seemed to weight her down, and all of a sudden it seemed like all the things that had happened in Aperture Science and all of the hours she had refused her body any rest caught up with her. She didn't even try to fight it as she fell into a deep sleep and stayed there throughout the day and the next night, dreaming of a life she didn't remember.


	2. Chapter 2

Chell, who had fallen asleep to the peaceful sounds of a bubbling brook, woke up to the shrieks of a creature attacking her. She had barely opened her eyes before she saw a small, reddish brown animal launch itself at her face. Fear and adrenaline suddenly coursed through her and she managed to hold up an arm and bat the creature away before it reached her. The thing landed about five feet away, and Chell quickly jumped up before it could charge at her again.

The thing had no visible eyes or ears, yet seemed like it was watching her, waiting for her to fight or flee. Chell only knew it had a mouth from her brief glimpse at the beak on its underbelly. Chell couldn't really remember the outside world, but an instinct or maybe whatever was left of her memories from before Aperture told her that this thing was wrong, wrong, wrong, that it didn't belong here.

But the thing didn't wait for her to figure it out, and only a few seconds after Chell stood the thing charged again, flying at her face with amazing accuracy and speed considering its stumpy and awkward looking legs. Chell sidestepped and leaped across the creek, scanning the area for anything that might be used to fend the little bugger off.

The only thing that looked like it might be up to killing or at least fending off the thing was a reasonably large branch. Chell picked it up as quickly as possible and swung the makeshift club around out of instinct. Miraculously, it hit the small creature, who went flying off in the opposite direction and landed a good ways away.

'It can't be killed that easy' Chell thought, tensing up and holding her newfound weapon at the ready, waiting and watching for the thing to hoist itself up and run at her again.

But it didn't. The creature stayed on the ground where it landed, and after five minutes Chell began to inch her way towards it. When she got into range, she poked it once with her branch and, when it didn't react, flipped it onto its back. The legs didn't start to move and the beak like mouth on its underside didn't make any sound. Its entire body was limp.

Chell let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and relaxed, letting her shoulders fall and her heels rest on the support struts of the long fall boots. It was only then when she realized just how awful she felt. Hunger clawed at her insides and seemingly every muscle she had was sore. The jumping thing had also wounded her; there was a bite on her arm where she had hit it the first time it attacked her.

Chell washed the cut in the stream and took another long drink, though it only seemed to make her feel hungrier. A few long, lingering looks were given to the dead creature. Would it be alright to eat? Chell didn't even remember what sorts of things she was meant to be eating, but she was certain that it wasn't these weird bitey thingys. For the lack of a better word, Chell decided to call them jumpers until someone could tell her what their proper name was.

That is, if there was anyone to tell her anything.

Chell ignored the pangs coming from her stomach and searched around the little clearing she found herself in more closely. And in the direction the jumper came from, there was what looked like a small footpath.

There WERE humans out here at one point! Yes! And this path, if she kept down it, would certainly lead to somewhere.

Chell felt like doing some kind of jig, but was too tired to really dance around. Inside she was filled with an almost overwhelming joy, but outside she gave no hint as to what she was feeling. She just began to walk down the little footpath, face as blank as it was during her first battle with GLaDOS. Her stomach growled and Chell let out a large sigh. She could really do with some adrenal vapor.

By the time the sun reached its apex, Chell had left the tiny forest trail in return for a larger one. The trees grew smaller and less impressive and everything had started to look a bit dingy, like another human had come before and covered the world in a layer of dust. But Chell's spirits brightened even more when the path she had been following connected to a larger road, this one paved. Paved!

She couldn't hear any cars rumbling along it, so she just walked in the middle of the pavement. This road was too narrow and bendy for anyone to drive too quickly on it, and she could probably hear a car coming from a mile away, with the forest being so silent.

Chell then pondered for awhile about how she knew the cars were loud, or that people couldn't drive fast on bendy roads, or even what cars were. The only conclusion she came to was that her memory was weird.

I was much easier to trek down the paved road than through a forest, and she was making great time. Jumpers occasionally popped out from the wood to try and eat her face, but her stick was always up and ready when they came.

It was sunset when Chell found herself in front of what looked like a touristy hunting lodge. The building was two stories tall, and was made out of what looked like faux logs.

It looked like heaven, an actual building after all that wilderness. And she only had to walk many, many miles and fight thirteen jumpers to get there. Chell ran the rest of the way there, too excited about the possibility of meeting another human being to care about how hungry and tired she was.

Chell raced across the ill kept fields toward the front door of the building. She heaved open one of the front doors and slipped inside. She then promptly threw up.

In the elaborate lobby filled with the remains of long dead animals, were the remains of long dead humans. The only difference was that the animals were displayed prettily high up on the walls and the humans were gruesomely mangles and spread out on the carpet. They looked like they had dies where they currently laid, female bodies wrapped around children and dead couples holding each other in terror. But that was the good half. The bad half was strewn up an all over the room. Some had bites in them, some were grusomeley torn apart, and some had jumpers attached to their faces.

Chell supposed she was lucky that they had all died long before she had gotten there. Dried leathery bits of human were strewn out all across the floor, nearly every bit unrecognizable except for the heads. Even so, every step she took further into the building made her want gag. The smell was awful. She had seen horrible, awful things in Aperture Science, but nothing had prepared her for this.

She could only stand pondering the dead people when she wasn't looking at them. Chell knew that she was a strong person. She had defeated both GLaDOS and Wheatley, climbed out of Tartarus and solved countless puzzles. Most of the time, she would take on any problem face first and soldier on until it was solved. But finding those bodies torn apart like that, the only humans she could remember, it was . . . horrible,

Chell continued to think her morbid thoughts while comfortably situated on a balcony in one of the upper rooms, eating canned something or the other and resting one of her hands on the gun laying down next to her as often as possible. She had taken the rifle off the floor in the entrance room, and had automatically checked, loaded and cocked it. It was a bit scary, but the weapon felt right in her hands, and came in great use when she had opened the door to the kitchen only to find a mutated and disgusting humanoid pawing through the cupboards.

Maybe the weapon felt familiar because she was actually part of the military, Chell mused. That voice down in the depths of Aperture had said that he had hired war-heroes as test subjects. Or maybe it felt good to carry the gun around because she had spent such a long time carrying the Handheld Portal Device in the same position. Chell suspected that she would never know, but it was nice to speculate on her past.

But mainly, her thoughts were centered on wondering about what, exactly, had happened to humanity. She might not have remembered much, but she was sure that the world had once been populated by something more than demented jumping monsters and the things they had attached themselves to. She had to shoot the horrible creature in the kitchen twice; once to kill the humanoid and once to kill the jumper that detached itself from its face.

GLaDOS had said, once, that the world had changed since she had left the building. And even though she had only gotten glimpses of what had once been outside, Chell believed her.

Aside from food and guns, the lodge provided one more very importance resource: Cars. It had cars, as Chell found out when the sun rose the next morning. Awesome. And somehow, Chell knew instinctively how to drive cars. Double Awesome.

She instantly fell in love with a huge, cherry red, pickup truck. She had found gasoline in a backroom when she had been investigating the other day, right next to a huge generator Chell assumed was for when the place lost power. But it didn't have any power to begin with now, and Chell didn't need any power.

She, Chell thought smugly, wasn't a robot.

Even if they had gotten out together, Wheatley probably wouldn't have survived for very long. Chell took a long, lingering look at the sky and sighed. She couldn't see the moon now, it was mid-morning. He had been up there for four days now, maybe longer. He was stuck up there with the spacey sphere, the manly sphere, and the ego sphere. She almost felt bad for him.

Almost.

But she took the gas, filled up the tank and loaded the rest onto the back. Tins of food were also arranged neatly in the truck bed and strapped down. The guns and ammo went into the passenger side seat for easy access. The only thing left to do was leave, but looking at the setting sun and the darkness encroaching on the forest, Chell decided to stay, if only for one more night.

It was actually rather disturbing how alike the guest rooms at the lodge were to the long term relaxation chamber at the enrichment center. But really, nothing bad had ever happened to Chell in her quaint little relaxation chamber and so she felt rather comfortable in the hotel room. If she found herself in more endless white and gray concrete puzzle rooms, then she might freak out.

Chell fell asleep on her fifth day of freedom full, well armed, and staring at the moon.

When she woke up there was something in her room. Chell woke up to skittering and whining sounds and automatically tightened the grip on her gun. When her eyes adjusted to the light of the room only illuminated faintly by the moon, she sat up and held her gun up, ready to shoot whatever was inside. I could have been friendly, she later supposed, but showing kindness toward anything hadn't exactly helped her in the past, example Wheatley.

And when the four legged thing managed to send out a shockwave that hurt like a bitch before it died from the gunshot wounds , and remorse that Chell might have felt at killing the oddly cute thing disappeared.

Out of the corner of her eye, Chell could see another one of the thing scurry around the corner outside of her room.

'Oh No', she thought 'there is no way that I'm letting them get away. No one is allowed to wake me up now that I can sleep!'

And so Chell reloaded her rifle and set out after the soundwave things. They headed towards the kitchen and rooted around the cupboards Chell had emptied earlier and searched through every room before circling back to the main hall. The soundwaves snuffled around for awhile, and one of the smaller ones even tried to eat some of the leathery skin was left of the floor. It was nearly daybreak, and Chell was considering just shooting them there when they disappeared into what had looked like a wine celler when Chell had investigated earlier. Seeing no reason to go down there, Chell hadn't. Now she wasn't sure whether that was a good idea or a horrifically bad one.

Then she saw a gigantic tentacle snake its way out of the doorway and pull the soundwaves into the downstairs room and was quite sure that it had been a good idea.

She ran out of the lodge and spent the rest of the night sleeping under the stars and pondering what else had changed since she left the building.


	3. Chapter 3

Chell left the lodge at dawn, eager to find out what else there was in the world now that she had the means to get somewhere fast. It was slightly hard to maneuver the pedals of the car whilst still wearing the long fall boots, but she quickly worked it out and by the time the sun had reached the middle of the sky, Chell could see a city.

She examined it as she ate a lunch of beef jerky and tinned corn. It wasn't likely that there were any more people there than there were at the hunting lodge. She could hear nothing coming from the city, and although she didn't know many things about the outside world, through logic she could figure out that if there were large groups of people they would be making a lot of noise.

Then she heard the shrieking that signaled a jumping-thing attack. Chell turned around to see it coming right at her face. In one smooth motion she picked up the pipe she had replaced her branch with, and swung it, hitting the thing dead on and killing it. Chell sighed. These attacks were becoming far too routine.

She packed up and drove off again, predicting quite correctly that she would reach the large urban area by early evening.

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><p>Chell was surprised to find that she hated the blank, empty silence of the city even more than that of the forest. At least in the forest she could remind herself that she was out of Aperture, that she was free. The place she was in now had far too many grey concrete corridors for her liking and it was absolutely infuriating not to have a portal gun with which to navigate them.<p>

She looked despairingly at a box of shotgun ammo which lay on the top of a fire escape of a ten story building. The way up from the inside was blocked and the bottom of the fire escape looked like it had been melted and then twisted in upon itself. But if she just had a portal gun. . .

Moments like this were what made Chell wish that she could scream. So instead, she punched the brick wall in front of her, which only earned her a sore hand and an even greater wish for the ability to curse. She glared up at the out of reach ammo, and at the dead body that was reaching for it, hand outstretched. If only he could have used that to not die, she wouldn't have this dilemma!

"Hello?"

A voice appeared out of seemingly nowhere and startled Chell, so much so that she hit her head on the wall accidentally before spinning around wildly, looking for whatever had made it. Her eyes finally alighted on a man standing right behind her. He was shorter than her, but bigger, more muscular. It looked like someone had rapidly and badly shaved his head, because though most of it was bald, there were small patches of blonde. At the ready he held a shotgun, which put Chell at ease even though it was directed at her. This man was prepared.

"You part of the resistance?" he asked hopefully. Chell said nothing, not that she even could. "Well then girl, are you just another one of those mindless drones? You can't be civil protection, don't have the gear. . ."

This last sentence was said mostly to himself as he examined her. Chell was confused. Drones? Civil protection? What were these things and why did this man, the first human she could remember seeing speak of them so negatively?

He was now circling around her, seemingly trying to figure her out, always keeping the shotgun pointed in her direction. Chell herself only had her pipe, because she hadn't seen anything big lurking about from her truck. But she took the pipe because she didn't trust those jumping things. They could, seemingly, pop out from anywhere.

"It's been awhile since I've seen anyone around here." The man said, breaking Chell out of her circle of confused thoughts. He pointed his gun straight at her face. "How can I be sure you aren't working for the Combine?"

Chell, once again, couldn't answer. But, shifting her feet, she had an idea. She put up one finger to signal the man to hold his fire and then, using her pipe, wrote WHAT ARE THE COMBINE? in the gravel at their feet. Chell had always been able to read and write, ever since she woke up, but so far she hadn't really used it except to read cans and signs. She was intensely grateful for it now, as it gave some way to communicate.

The man read the scratching, sounding out the words silently. When he finished, his eyes snapped up to her face, widening in disbelief.

"How in the hell can you not know what the combine are?" he said, suspicion and doubt lacing every word. Chell stared hard at him for a moment and then shrugged, unable to explain her memory loss and long incarceration in Aperture. How could she tell her story to anyone without the ability to directly speak? Even if she wrote it down it would take forever and this man didn't seem like he was very good at reading anyway.

Now he was circling around her, looking her over. It made Chell mildly uncomfortable, but she knew that she could fight back if he tried anything. Her grip tightened on the pipe and her face hardened.

"You're very young." The man said. "I bet you were real little during the seven hour war. Maybe you just never came across them? Are you traveling with anyone?"

Chell shook her head, signaling that she wasn't. It would be nice if she could actually _say_ no, but by now it was quite obvious to her that this would never be an option for her.

The man made a small humming sound and spent a moment in quiet contemplation before finally lowering his gun. Sticking out his hand, the man introduced himself as Leonard Greene. Chell shook it and then scratched her name into the ground.

"Well Chell," the man said, "Looks like I'm going to have to explain the combine to you. We'll do it on the way back to base. Now, about twenty years ago it all started at Black Mesa. . ."

Chell basked for a moment in the feeling of rightness that came from having her name spoken by a human voice, but then held up a finger and ran to retrieve her rifle. He nodded at her when she rejoined him armed and then they both started to walk across the city, roads impassable by cars. Chell listened intently to Leonard, absorbing all the information he gave her. She needed to know as much as she possible if she was going to survive outside.

It wasn't that hard to pay attention anyway. Leonard was a great storyteller, giving his own account of the seven hours war and the years that followed while lacing all of the important bits inside the narrative. In the hour it had taken them to walk across the city, Chell had learned the proper names for all of the creepy crawlies she had been fighting, which beings would beat her to death or enslave her, and about everything else that had happened since she last left the building.

She was also given a new goal: get rid of the combine. Not that Leonard told her that's what she had to do, exactly, but that was what she could _sense_ needed to be done.

Chell had always been good at working with vague directions.

Anyway, an objective was good. Chell didn't work very well when she didn't have goals such as 'solve this test', 'kill the homicidal computer' or 'escape this gigantic pit'. She had completed her task of finding civilization, and destroying the combine seemed like a thing that someone should do. Why not her? She didn't escape Aperture only to be enslaved for the rest of her life.

Her new goal seemed considerably more difficult than any of her previous ones, but that was alright. As much as she hated tests, she loved challenges. And, according to GLaDOS, she was particularly good at murder.

'Besides' she thought, 'at least these people don't want to kill me personally. That's got to be an improvement.'

Chell didn't even notice when they got to the place Leonard and his friends were hiding out, not because she wasn't paying attention, but because it was cleverly hidden underneath a collapsed building. One wouldn't even be able to notice the entrance unless they crouched down and scooted underneath a slab of concrete on their stomach.

Slipping through a crack and falling about five feet onto some mattresses, Chell entered the hide out. It was a large rectangular depression underneath the collapsed building, probably a basement when the thing was still standing. It looked like the people who lived there had dragged everything they could find that would even remotely be useful into the hole. There were guns, blankets, various bits of clothing, cookware, sports equipment, pieces of sheet metal, books of all shapes and sizes, and what looked like an entire laboratory broken down into its basic components.

There were also two people and an alien. One was a short blond woman who stood up as soon as she realized it was not just Leonard entering and a younger looking dark haired man who sat in a corner, staring at one of the concrete walls and playing with something he held. He looked almost catatonic, not reacting when either Leonard or Chell slipped in. Then there was the alien.

It was humanoid, with what looked like an extra appendage extending from its chest and only one large eye. From the description that Leonard gave her, Chell hazarded a guess that this was a vortigaunt. It was stirring a pot that was being heated over a Bunsen burner attached to a propane tank. Whatever was in it was emitting what seemed like a heavenly smell to someone who couldn't remember eating hot food. The alien was staring at her as intently as the blonde woman was, but with seemingly less hostility, although Chell couldn't really read its expression.

"Who's this?" the woman asked, glancing over at the boy in the corner. Leonard gave a dismissive wave and began to walk over to the alien.

"This is Chell, Anna" he said, introducing them. "Found her on the outskirts alone and still alive. I figured we could help each other out. What's for dinner?"

Chell was thankful that he didn't mention her apparently stunning ignorance, as Anna looked suspicious enough of her.

"Headcrab soup, what else?" Anna replied. She took a good hard look at Chell, who stood uncomfortably in the corner, not feeling welcome enough to step forward with Leonard. She shifted back onto her boot's heel springs and then onto her toes, like she was preparing to run. The woman unnerved her; though it was probably more fear that she would do something wrong and never find any humans ever again that kept Chell from moving forward. Then the blonde dropped her glare and sighed.

"I suppose we can't reject any help we can get" she said. Chell began to walk nearer to the group, but was stopped by and arm. Anna looked her hard in the eyes again and spoke.

"But if I find you're a combine spy or here to hurt us, god help you."

Chell stared back and nodded before going over to get some soup.

"The Chell will not harm us" The Alien suddenly said, its words directed at Anna but its gaze firmly on Chell. "The purpose of freedom is mutual."

Leonard stood back up and gave her a great big grin. "Well," he said, "if John trusts you then we're all in agreement. Chell can stay with us." Chell glanced over at the boy in the corner and gestured towards him. "Anna scowled at her and stalked away, moving to the corner and beginning to sort through one of the piles of stuff. Leonard's grin fell and was replaced by a tight, forced smile.

"That's Tucker" He said. "We rescued him from the combine and he hasn't been quite right ever since." Changing the subject quickly, he pointed her to the gun pile and gave her a chance to put down her rifle. Chell did and was then properly introduced to John, who had been wandering around the city and joined the group about a year ago. It turned out that John wasn't his real name, but whatever he was called among his own kind was unpronounceable.

Chell didn't even realize that John was a very un-alien type name. She hadn't heard it before now, after all.

Half an hour after Chell and Leonard arrived the soup was done, and everyone took some, even Tucker, who was brought a bowl and then proceeded to lap at it like a dog, getting all over his face and clothes. The rest of them ate in a more civilized way, though unfortunately they did not have any clean spoons. It was very. . . nice, Chell decided, sitting around a little fire as the sun set slowly outside and having a nice conversation with other living beings. Not that Chell was participating in the conversation but. . .

That night, Chell went to sleep on a bare mattress listening to the slow breathing of the people around her and thought that this was the happiest she could ever remember being.

* * *

><p>Chell woke up as soon as the first rays of morning light shone through the crack that led out. Sleep was still a rather odd concept to her, though it felt very natural. Why did humans have to go unconscious and hallucinate vividly every day? Why did they have to do it at all? As much as she hated them, Chell had to admit that robots were a lot more efficient.<p>

It seemed that vortigaunts were more efficient as well, as John was already up and quietly watching the sunrise through the crack. Stepping around the other bodies littering the floor, Chell collected her rifle and joined him, taking a moment to appreciate the sky as she could not have only a couple of days ago.

The vortigaunt suddenly interrupted, speaking to Chell but keeping its one great eye fixed on the outside landscape. "We are free now, as we have never been before" it said. "We can choose when and whom to fight. This is of the utmost importance." Chell nodded. She did not know how he knew that she did so, but nevertheless he spoke again. "No," He said. "This one does not know that the Chell understands."

But Chell understood him perfectly well. She supposed that he was some kind of mind reader because all of previous evening, he had spoken to her about freedom, giving cryptic statements one after the other. Leonard had even apologized, assuring her that he wasn't always so vague. But John's statements had been clear as crystal to her. And now he must have picked up on what she was planning to do. To fight.

So she shook her head. She did understand, and this was her fight. She couldn't just abandon her species to live under oppression , and it was a hope that one day she would finally be able to _live_, not just survive. 'After all', she asked him mentally, hoping that her theories about him were true, 'would you ignore evil just because you had the chance to run away?'

"No," he said, after a moment of contemplation. "No, we would not."

* * *

><p>The routine for these few survivors was simple but very important. It was the only thing keeping them survivors instead of casualties. Every morning the first human to wake up would then rouse the others. Anna cleaned up and dressed Tucker while Leonard would prepare himself for the day, choosing his gun and secondary weapons, getting dressed and washing up. He showed Chell the tub of water in a light corner that collected dripping rainwater the two other like it that were already full.<p>

Food and its preparation fell to John, because he was, for some reason, much better at it than her had any right to be, considering he wasn't even the same species as they were. But his tastes were similar to theirs and he kept getting recipes from somewhere, so they let him have that role.

Then Leonard, Anna, occasionally John, and now Chell would go out and forage.

They were always looking for food and ammo, especially food in cans and ammo that fit the guns they already had. Other things were also picked up, usually anything that looked useful. All of was dragged back to their little cave.

Then, when the sun snuck past midday, Chell and Leonard would go hunting for headcrabs or even bigger game. Then they would bring it back to John, who would butcher it outside and then throw the cuts of meat down to a waiting person. They had headcrab soup fairly often, and Chell found that houndeye meat, if one could ignore the green blood, was very tender.

The only one who didn't contribute anything was Tucker. He just sat in the corner speaking quietly to the wall or playing with some random object. Anna took care of him, feeding him, dressing him, and helping him go to the toilet. He never went out of the cave, and occasionally had screaming fits, usually when he saw something that must have reminded him of what he went through. Once it was a long aluminum baseball bat and once a dirty white hockey mask. It put everyone in a bad mood when he was upset, except for Chell. Tucker's problems just strengthened her resolve against the Combine.

Unfortunately, there weren't any Combine to fight in their small and broken city, so Chell set her anger in the back of her mind and tried to enjoy everything she now had.

And enjoy it, she did. There was just nothing like true human companionship, nothing in the world. She thought that the evenings were the very best part of the day. Everyone gathers around the small Bunsen burner, blankets wrapped around them and would tell stories or joke around or even sing before going to sleep. Anna, who gradually warmed up to Chell, was determinedly teaching her how to play the guitar and Leonard was a surprisingly good clarinet player. John just crooned along in the background of their songs, adding a haunting yet beautiful harmony. And every day, no matter how poor the hunting was and how foul a mood her comrades were in, Chell fell asleep happy.

This life was deceptively comforting. Every night she fell asleep to the snores of fellow humans and during the day her mind could rest, going on autopilot. There were no tests, no experiments, no GLaDOS. She could finally look at the moon without wondering how Wheatley was doing. She hoped he was happy, but didn't bother wishing happiness for the other core she knew was up there. He was in space. Of course he was happy. And slowly, the pain that she had felt at the thought of Wheatley's betrayal faded.

So Chell let months pass her by, living in comfort and peace.

But it couldn't last forever.

Chell wouldn't let it.

* * *

><p>Alright! Finally, I got this DONE! Things are going to speed up from now on, and the first meeting with the half life characters should happen soon enough. Since she's hooked up with humans, things have been going faster.<p>

Please review! Reviews are my bread and butter and I'm starving! Internet cookies to all!


	4. Chapter 4

"You're nuts! I mean genuinely certifiable!"

Leonard yelled this at Chell over dinner, concern in his eyes. Anna looked like she very much agreed with him, letting her spoon hang by her side and her mouth slightly open. John didn't seem surprised, but he also wasn't looking at her, choosing to distract himself by cleaning up Tucker. Chell just raised an eyebrow and gestured for Leonard to go on with whatever he was saying.

He rested his hand on his forehead and sighed. Anna picked up approximately where he left off. "You don't just go and fight against the Combine" she said, her tone disbelieving. "You'll die. In two seconds! You must be mad. They're better equipped and much stronger than you'll ever be. Trying to deal with the combine is suicide."

Leonard and Anna continued talking while Chell used the notebook she had written her original idea on to write another message. A bit of frustration rose in her as she considered how much easier this would be if she could only _speak. _But a pen and paper would do, even if it wasn't ideal, and so Chell wrote out her reasons for wanting to fight the combine and then turned the notebook to face her fellow humans.

They paused to read it and a long silence fell across the basement, broken only by the small noises coming from Tucker. Leonard looked like he was crushed and he hung his head.

"I'm sorry Chell" he said. "It I hadn't, hadn't told you about the Combine you wouldn't want to fight them so badly. But you just can't do this, you can't. You'll die and then it'll be like a part of my family has died."

He brought his head up to look her in the eyes, seemingly staring into her soul. "Chell," he said. "All we have is each other. And we can't lose you."

"Yeah" added Anna. "As much as I didn't like you before, you've grown on me. T'would be a shame to let you go."

"The Chell seeks freedom, as do we all." said John, stalking over and crouching down next to Chell. "I shall accompany her throughout the journey. The vortessence flows with hope as it has not in years. The Chell shall not fight alone."

The rest of the party let his word sink. And Leonard managed to let out a quiet "I. . ." before Anna stood up in indignation.

"What?" she said, furious. "Are we all going to be leaving now? Are we going to leave Tucker alone to fend for himself? Is this place not good enough?"

Her voice was full of emotion. Tucker began to cry out in the background, picking up on  
>Anna's emotion. Chell understood why she was so angry, she really did. She herself had grown attached to this place they had carved out for themselves in the two months she had lived here. But this, she could feel in her heart and mind, was important. She wished that she could tell Anna what she was feeling, because she certainly couldn't find the right words to write it down. Maybe if she could speak, things like this would be easier.<p>

Anna started crying, tears leaking out of her eyes and sorrow mixing with the indignation in her voice. "What if you get captured by the Combine? There isn't going to be anyone here to rescue you!"

She then staggered forward and wrapped her arms around Chell. Tucker let out a scream. "I. . ." she said, "I don't want you to end up like everyone else who has fought against them. We're safe here, happy here. Why do you feel the need to go and get yourself killed?"

And suddenly, the right words came to Chell. She slipped out of the embrace and picked up her notebook, everyone's eyes on her. She quickly scribbled, and when she held it up to the others it read: _We can't just survive. We have to live._

Anna fell silent, looking like she had something, words perhaps, stuck in her throat. Leonard gave what looked like a small nod and John made an ambiguous sound that Chell took as approval. Tucker's wailing in the background got louder and louder, until finally Anna went over and hugged him, calming him down.

Leonard then awkwardly broke the silence. "Well," he said "I think it's best if we talk about this in the morning. We won't go out tomorrow." He turned to Chell and then, gesturing to her notebook, said "I think you should be prepared to make your case."

Chell nodded and walked over to her own mattress next to the guns. She didn't write anything down, only gently placed the notebook and pencil next to her bed. She already knew why she, and maybe even they, should leave to fight.

She knew that leaving, that fighting, was the right thing to do. But nevertheless, that night was the first time that she fell asleep troubled since her escaped.

Sooner than she liked, Chell woke up. Not with the dawn, as she usually did, but to a small hand shaking her awake. She turned over quickly, fearing irrationally that a Head crab had somehow made its way into the shelter, but only saw Anna leaning over her. Taking a great sigh of relief, Chell tried to covey purely through expression how annoyed she was at being woken up so early and her want to know what Anna wanted.

"Wake up, Chell" Anna said. "I need to talk to you."

Chell nodded and sat up. Anna made her way over to the crack to the outside, where the moonlight was shining through and leaned up against it, gesturing for Chell to come closer. So she did. They both stared at the outside for a while, Anna obviously trying to work out what exactly it was that she wanted to say. Chell stared at the moon and wondered about Wheatley. She knew what he was doing at the moment, orbiting around the moon, but she didn't know a whole lot else. What was it like on the moon?

Whatever it was like it was probably better than Aperture. Chell her kept her word. She had gotten him out, in the end. In contrast, Chell knew that GLaDOS was probably busy with something diabolical and, frankly, evil, but she couldn't bring herself to care. As long as the AI didn't mess with her new world (and, as this was outside the facility, she wouldn't) Chell couldn't care less.

Finally, Anna began to speak.

"Chell," she said. "Do you know who, exactly, Tucker is?"

Chell shook her head in response.

"He's my son" Anna said, her voice shaking a bit on the last word.

Chell took a great, deep breath and let it out slowly. She had been expecting something like this, but it was still hard to hear. Tucker just wasn't right in the head, but from the way everyone treated him and talked to him, Chell had deduced that he wasn't always like that.

"You're so young," said Anna, taking Chell's hand into her own. "I just want you to be safe."

Chell looked at Anna with a hard gaze and tried her very hardest to make the older woman understand. Tried to show that she had already been hurt by her time in Aperture, that she understood what she was up against. Tried to make her understand that it would all be alright.

But Chell failed, and Anna only looked back in confusion. Chell wished she was talking to John instead. He always understood, even though he wasn't human. Hell, Chell wished she was talking to Wheatley. He never really understood her, but he was at least willing to go along with her plans.

"I'm staying here." Anna said. "With Tucker."

Chell took a deep sigh and nodded, disappointed but not surprised. She had hoped that Anna had woken her to give good news, but it looked like Chell would be moving on without her.

But that was alright. Chell didn't expect anyone to follow her. She understood that the world was dangerous, perhaps better than any of them. She had faced evil before and survived. Chell was pretty sure that she could face whatever she came up against, but she really couldn't vouch for anyone who followed her.

So really, this was for the best.

Even so, when they both went back to their respective beds, Chell let out a sniffle and her eyes were moist when they hit her pillow.

* * *

><p>There were numerous fights over the next couple of days, with Chell being the only one to stand her ground on this journey. The others kept debating with themselves and flip flopping on whether they wanted to stay or go.<p>

Nevertheless, one week later a truck was waiting on a road opposite from the one Chell arrived on. It was packed full of guns, ammo, food, water, equipment, and gasoline. Chell was decked out in something resembling an army uniform, with huge pockets and many layers. Only John stood with her, finally having decided that fighting for the freedom of the earth was well worth the risks and the abandonment of this simple yet wonderful life.

Chell wondered if he felt sad, as sad as she did. She didn't know how the alien processed emotions. She didn't know if the alien even had emotions and if he did, she couldn't read it on his face. They had sang and laughed with Leonard and Anna last night, but it had been over all too soon. Morning had finally come, and they were heading out on a new journey.

"We will meet again." John said. "All lives are connected through the vortessence"

Chell gave him a weary gaze and a sad smile. And, for a second, she felt like he was smiling back at her. So Chell took a deep breath and walked up to the pickup, pulling the driver's door open and taking the drivers seat. John soon occupied the passenger seat, and though trucks weren't built for vortigaunts, he fit well enough.

Chell turned the key and the engine roared to life. She smiled and pressed down on the gas pedal and soon they were speeding off into the great unknown, perhaps not happy, but definitely free.


	5. Chapter 5

The road was empty, the land outside the small city desolate. John had played around with the radio controls, getting only static and emergency signals from decades past. Chell just focused on the road in front of her and the obstacles ahead; occasionally the way was blocked by debris, or, in one case, a dead alien so gigantic they had to go off the road to get around it. All Chell knew is that she most certainly wouldn't want to run into that thing alive anytime soon. As she drove past the head almost stared up at her, sharp fangs just poking out of a gaping jaw.

"Striders." John said under his breath. They drove straight past and didn't look back. But other than that, they didn't see anything interesting.

John tracked their progress on a map looted from a convenience store in the city. They turned south to begin with, just to get out of the peninsula that was Michigan and then headed east. Something inside chell told her to head towards the little dot labeled New York City, even though the name was quite unassuming and she couldn't remember exactly why she wanted to go there.

Nevertheless, the unlikely pair went along with relative harmony. When they ran out of food, or batteries, or any other supplies they went into houses or shops and looted. Any aliens they came across were quickly dispatched with extreme prejudice, and none stood a chance against both the test subject and the vortigaunt.

Going was slow. They could rarely push past twenty miles per hour for fear of either hitting a sudden obstacle or destroying the engine on the decades old truck they were driving. Debris and neglect turned the highway into something resembling an off road course, and every large bump and shake made Chell wince. There were few cars to steal outside of towns and cities and even fewer still which could carry the sheer amount of stuff this pickup could.

They went through cities and small towns, forest and plain. Over rivers and through mountains.

And no matter where they went, the only common denominators were headcrabs and desolation. Occasionally they would come across the body of something larger, but they looked to be dead for a while.

And as many alien bodies they found, there were twice as many humans.

Chell started to unconsciously slow down before driving into a town, just from fear of what they would find this time. Every town and house and store hid another grisly sight. Bodies seemed to be everywhere, some with their chest split to reveal their guts, some decapitated and arranged in elaborate poses, as if the combine or whoever else had passed through here had a horrible sense of humor.

The two unlikely companions often roasted one a head crab or two buggers over a campfire and had what Chell had labeled 'mind charades'. In which Chell could just think of a topic or a question or a response to something that John had said, and the alien either responded in return or failed to understand, resulting in several minutes of wild pantomiming in order to make herself understood.

It was fun and sometimes funny, and as Chell interacted and bonded closely with this other living, breathing, and sentient being she could free some of her memories coming back. Slowly, but progress was there all the same.

She could remember a warm hug that might have been her father, and a sensation of being comforted after she cried as Anna had comforted Tucker when he broke down. Sometimes these little flashes of her previous life would come while trying to talk to John. He would look at her strangely and move away for a little while, like he knew that these few glimpses into her previous life were sacred.

But all in all, from what Chell understood of road trips, this one was fairly normal.

Until they ran into their first Combine stronghold.

It was late in the day when the road Chell and John had been driving along reached a dead end, a bridge that was broken clean in the middle. Both Chell and John exited the car and looked around. There wasn't anything more here than there was in the rest of the business districts they had gone through to get here. Just a deserted shop and a bunch of foliage.

Chell's stomach growled. She walked over to the closed business, hoping for a restaurant or supermarket, but instead finding a store so looted that she couldn't even tell what it was originally supposed to be.

"Chell." John called out from across the way. She quickly ran over to the alien and saw him pointing off into the distance. She aligned her gaze with his and saw, off in the distance, a cloud of smoke.

Chell's heart started to beat faster in her chest, and a smile grew on her face. People! Actual, honest to god, sentient beings were here.

But the way towards the smoke was impassable. Chell looked back at the truck and then at the broken bridge. She began to pace back and forth, doing simple calculations in her head, the type of which she hadn't had to do since she had escaped aperture science.

Speed, weight, time, inertia. . .

Chell licked her finger and stuck it up in the sir to get a general idea of the wind speed. With one more hard glare at the broken bridge, Chell decided it could work and ran to the truck. She began frantically unloading supplies out of the bed, chucking pretty much everything except ammo and what little gas they had left.

John walked slowly over to her, cautious around his seemingly insane partner.

"What is the Chell doing?" her asked slowly.

Chell turned around, smiling and pantomimed driving. She pointed to the bridge and then signaled going over it. The vortigaunt, having communicated with her this way for a while now, got what she was saying almost immediately. And then put up a protest.

"She does not think this one is coming as well?"

Chell nodded as she lugged a gas can out of the bed.

"A quick death is all the Chell will gain from this endeavor."

Chell waved his concerns away and began to fill up the gas tank.

"We are uncertain this is not enemy territory."

Chell topped off the gas tank and gave John a serious look. She nodded, as if to say 'Good. I hope its enemy territory.'

John quietly gave up and wondered when he became so good at looking into the human mind.

He got in the passenger side of the car and Chell the driver's side. Chell turned the old beast of a car on and put it in reverse. They backed up until they hit the last intersection and then switched gears.

Chell and John looked at each other for a second, Chell with a wild excitement and John with both confusion and trust. Chell took a deep breath and hit the pedal, pushing the car as fast as it could go. 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 65, the speed just kept increasing, until they once again passed the store and suddenly were on the bridge. And then, the two of them were free in the air.

It felt like her gut had moved into her chest, and John let out an incredibly interesting sound that was halfway in between a scream and a moan.

And then, all too quick and all too slow the jump was over and they were headed down the road on the other side. Chell stopped the car and took a few deep breaths. She felt like she had just run a mile. John was shaking in the passenger seat.

"That one," the vortigaunt said "will never do something similar to this again."

Chell brought out a memo pad and pencil stored in the truck's glove compartment and scribbled something down. John turned to read it.

_I make no promises_

John released something like a sigh and performed a gesture that could only be referred to as a face palm.

Chell smiled and began to drive towards the source of the smoke.

And for a while they drove through the ruined city in quiet. But as they turned a corner to the street that was inhabited, a shot rang out across the city and their windshield cracked. Chell's mind froze up, but her instincts were good and they told her to get out of the car and out of sight. She ran out of the street and ducked behind a building. She could see John doing the same one the other side of the road.

John was hiding behind a dumpster, but was still being shot at every so often. They made eye contact and he gestured up towards the top of a building on the left of her. Chell craned her head upwards and barely saw something lying prone on the rooftop. John had a better view, but Chell thought he must have pretty good eyes to see the sniper.

He had spotted the person and now it was Chell's job to take them out. But she had left her rifle in the car!

Chell almost felt like smacking herself. You never left your gun behind! Ever!

She supposed that she had grown complacent during the past few weeks of quiet. She made a mental promise to herself right then that she would never be caught without a gun from now on, but that wouldn't help anything if she didn't survive this encounter.

Chell searched around for anything useful, and eventually found a fairly long piece of PVC pipe. It had a good weight in her hands, and was better than nothing. If she swung hard enough she figured she could knock someone unconscious. And if it wasn't too unwieldy, she could take the sniper's gun.

Chell ran around to the back of the building and found a door that had half broken off its hinges, like someone strong had come and kicked it down. She pushed it aside and carefully entered the place. Gunshots rang out intermittently from the rooftop, but even when the noise stopped her heelsprings cushioned and silenced her footsteps.

She made her way up and up and up, each level bringing her closer and closer until she reached the roof. There was no actual doorway to the rooftop, but a piece of the ceiling had collapsed and a ladder had been leaned up against the remaining bits, leading on top of the building.

Chell could see the figure on the edge clearly now. He- for she could now see it was a human male- was wearing some sort of army uniform and was speaking a language she couldn't decipher. He was focusing his attention downwards towards John, and seemingly wasn't worried about the other person who had gotten out of the car.

That is, until it was too late.

Chell brought down her pipe hard on his head and kept whacking him until she was sure he was down. She flipped over his body to find an immovable mask covering his face. It was creepy, and even though she knew he was unresponsive it still felt like he was staring at her. This, she thought, must be the combine. It was just as Anna and Leonard had described them. So, she did the only sensible thing and chucked his body over the edge. He hit the street with a splat.

Chell was busy inspecting the gun when she saw John run out of hiding and over to her side. She concluded that the gun was too big to carry around and descended the ladder and stairs, meeting up with John at the bottom. He handed her a gun, and Chell slung it over her shoulder, feeling much safer now that she had a weapon.

They moved down the street slowly and cautiously, abandoning their truck altogether and moving on foot until they finally reached their destination.

The building the smoke emerged from was labeled by fading a broken letters as the David L. Lawrence convention center. And standing guard in front of it were two combine soldiers with assault rifles. Chell checked to see that her gun was reloaded and quivered with anticipation. Next to her John nodded.

Oh yes.

This was going to be good.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello! I'm so sorry for the long wait, but I am really uncertain about my action scenes and have enter college, which requires a heavier , in return, this is a longer chapter than normal, and, I think, better. Please enjoy, and review if you like or have any constructive criticism for me. Thank you for reading!

* * *

><p>Chell looked down at the end of her gun and aimed as well as she could for the soldier that was further away from her. She took a deep breath and pretended she was back hunting with Leonard. Without any more hesitation she pulled the trigger and was happy to see that her bullet went straight through the combine soldier's masked head.<p>

But now the other one was on guard. He had jumped to attention and was looking around wildly, not even going to check on his partner, which she had been counting on to get her second shot off.

Instead, Chell could hear, he was walking slowly towards her and John's hiding place. Her heart beat at a mile per minute, and for a second she thought back to the small collapsed basement with Anna and tucker and wished she had listened to the older women when she said not to go.

But as the soldier was about to reach their hiding place, John jumped up and over the rubble. Chell watched in awe as he lit up like a Christmas tree, electricity arcing from his body and into the ground and into the soldier. The combine collapsed a minute later, twitching, but without any consciousness left. Chell emerged, openly amazed at what she had just witnessed. John had been holding out on her!

John at least had the decency to be the alien equivalent of bashful. Chell burst into silent giggles for a second before recovering and running towards the entrance to the convention center, motioning for the alien to follow behind her.

They both ran up to the door. Chell instinctively pressed herself up on the wall to the side and carefully stuck her head around the corner to peek inside. She saw, one, two, three combine soldiers walking the large space just within, two on the ground floor and one walking a balcony overlooking the larger area.

Chell did some quick calculations in her head. She could take out the guy on the upper floor in one shot, but that would alert the two others, and she really didn't feel like getting shot today. Chell pulled a memo pad out of her pocket.

_How fast can you run?_, she wrote.

"This one cannot outrun a bullet, if that is what she is asking." John replied quietly.

Chell shook her head and flipped to a new page of the memo pad. She drew a quick diagram of the lobby and outlined her plan like a football diagram. John nodded slightly.

"This can be improved" John said as he took the pen from Chell's hand. He squiggled out a few lines, drew some new ones and marked out a new place for Chell to stand.

She nodded. It was a bit better than her hastily thought out plan. She tucked the memo pad away in a back pocket and peeked around the corner. The guards wandering round the bottom floor were close to their position, so she waited until they had moved to the opposite end of the hall before running out of cover and shooting the balcony soldier in the head.

She almost immediately heard gunfire in retaliation, but she quickly ducked and hid behind a fountain, using it for cover. It was dry and chipped, and not a very good hiding place at all, but it would do for now. The top of the fountain was broken off. Chell wondered if this had ever been used as cover from gunfire before.

The firing stopped for a second, and Chell could hear their weird, garbled voices. They were getting closer. She quickly peeked out and saw that the pair was three quarters of the way down the hall, and would be over taking her soon, which meant that it was time for John to play out his part in their plan.

Chell waited a few more tense seconds, praying that John wouldn't miss his cue. If he had run into trouble, or abandoned the fight, or was only a little delayed, she wouldn't have a chance of survival.

But he was on time, ready and waiting. When the combine soldiers reached the edge of the fountain, he shot out behind them, running as fast as he could towards the other end of the hall. Both soldiers turned around in surprise and shock. They began to shoot at the vortigaunt, who was little more than a blur by now, leaving Chell plenty of time to stand up and shoot them both in the back.

They crumpled over, dead. Chell ran to where John was waiting. They would be going into the combine stronghold without a plan, but together. Standing beside the slightly shorter alien made Chell feel powerful, and her successful plan boosted her confidence.

Now that she could look at the area they had entered into more closely, Chell noticed that there were several exits to the atrium they had just entered. To the left she could see a doorway that looked like it led to a larger area. On the right there was an escalator that led up to the balcony with the first soldier she had killed inside the building. And then, also off to the left was a restaurant and even more stairs heading down, presumably out to the water behind the building.

Chell's head spun. This was nothing like the puzzles back in the facility, where there was always a first step, even if it took a while to recognize it. Here, she could start anywhere, and, moreover, her success wasn't guaranteed. She would have to be smarter than ever before in order to survive this.

Figuring that they would need an additional safe exit point, Chell headed across to the steps that led down towards the water, leaving John to survey the balcony. From the top of the steps she could see that there were two more combine soldiers standing with their guns pointed at some giant glass doors. Somehow, they had not even heard the yelling of their comrades or the three gunshots.

'Bad hearing' Chell marked down in her mind as one of these humanoids weaknesses. 'either that or they're really stupid'.

A quick, clean shot to the back of the torso and one was down permanently. The other spun around and saw her, but only managed to get off a couple of wild shots before he was dispatched as well.

She went halfway down the stairs, but only far enough that she could tell there weren't any more soldiers on that level. Then she checked out the restaurant, which hid a couple of headcrabs and a zombie, but nothing that was sentient. The kitchen cupboards were bare of food, but there was a distinct smell of rot coming from what she could tell had used to be a walk in refrigerator. Suddenly, a strong pulse of fear came crashing down, nearly paralyzing her.

But after a moment Chell got a hold of herself again and ran out of the restaurant and towards the other end of that hall. At the very end she spotted about 5 soldiers huddling around something. From underneath them she saw a flash of green struggling and kicking. She pushed herself to go even faster and brought her gun up , shooting at the figures.

They looked up and, having subdued the first intruder, began to advance on Chell. She took two out quickly with shots to the torso, and tried to take out the third, until she realized that she was, unfortunately, out of ammo.

She reached into her back pocket to grab a clip, but one of the soldier's wild shots hit her leg. She clutched her thigh in pain and crouched down, trying to make a smaller target. But not for long.

She pulled the PVC pipe she had picked up earlier out of her belt loop and charged forward, the pain in her leg diminishing in the adrenaline. She smacked one of them upside the head, connecting at its forehead and knocking it out. She then swung the pipe around to hit the soldier standing next to her, but it shoved the butt of its gun into her ribs, knocking the wind out of her and causing the hit to land across its knees instead of the midsection where she had aimed.

But that was still enough power to knock it to the ground, and as soon as it hit the floor Chell's long fall boot connected hard with its head. An electrical crackle then came from behind her, taking care of the last soldier before she could beat on him.

Chell sank down next to John and noticed a few slices in his skin, from which dripped green blood. Almost unconsciously, she reached and toughed the largest of these, a long slice on his arm. He flinched away and Chell pulled her hand, now covered in the dark green blood, back towards her body.

"More" John gasped, "Two who guard in the center."

'Guard?' Chell thought, ' Guard What?'

She cautiously limped forward, more grateful than ever that her long fall boots softened her footsteps until they were almost silent. She then, with her back up against the wall, peeked through a glass window in one of the doors that led, presumably, to what was one the main conference hall.

She didn't bother to stifle a gasp at what was inside. Humans! Almost fifty or so, she guessed, huddled around each other and guarded by two of the combine, who had their backs facing the door. Then she spotted out of the corner of her eye a third one up on a balcony that overlooked the large area. That one was equipped with a sniper rifle pointed at the people. That one would have to be taken out first.

She motioned for John to stay there, and he gratefully sank down against the wall, stretching out injured legs and cradling one arm in the other. Chell was worried about just leaving him there defenseless, but he did have his electric attack, and she didn't think that there were any combine left except for those she was going to take out now. Concentrating, she tried to project her question toward him, as she had tried during their many nights by various campfires.

"This one will be fine." John responded, receiving her mental message with little trouble. Chell gave him a smile and then ran off in the other direction, up the escalators and onto the second floor, which, as she expected, was filled with various conference rooms. She carefully prowled through the upper level, peeking her head around every corner before turning, trying desperately to find the balcony that overlooked the main area which she had seen earlier.

Then, finally, looking around one last corner, she saw the distinctive figure of the combine soldier standing behind a mounted gun. Chell raised her rifle up to her shoulder and carefully took aim. She was at the other end of the hallway, and this was the longest shot she had ever tried to make, but she was confident. the combine wasn't moving and there was nothing in the way.

The gun only had to fire once, her bullet going straight through the soldiers ' head. But then she heard an additional spread of bullets. She jumped and looked around hurriedly, but there was no one around or behind her. And then, suddenly she realized it was coming from the ground level. Worried about John, she ran to the edge of the balcony and quickly ducked down behind the fortified gun, on top of the dead soldier.

They were shooting up at her!

How the hell did they notice?

She looked up at the gun, hoping that maybe she could use it, but the controls were obviously made for a combine, and worked differently from any gun she had ever seen, including the portal gun.

She could take potshots from the top here, but they were more likely to hit her than her them, or she could do something crazy.

Well, she never expected to make it out of Aperture in the first place, and she had taken turret bullets before. How much worse could this be? It was time to get crazy.

In one smooth movement, Chell stood up and vaulted over the balcony wall, shooting at the two soldiers as they fell. One went down while she was in freefall, and the other, clearly stunned at her little stunt, couldn't readjust its aim quickly enough and went down right afterward.

The people next to Chell were equally stunned, though considerably less dead. One man at the front of the pack stood up, fists clenched, and looked straight into Chell's eyes.

"Who are you? And why did you fight off the combine like that?"

Chell sighed at having to painstakingly explain herself again, and went to pull out her memo pad from her back pocket. but, before she could even pull it out, a door opened behind her and John wearily limped in.

"She is the Chell." He said. "And she speaks for freedom."


End file.
